Black Sheffield Lake Police officer breaks silence on former chief's 'KKK' incident, announces legal action

SHEFFIELD LAKE — Sheffield Lake Officer Keith Pool recalled the moment on June 25 when he walked into the police station booking area and found a paper that said "Ku Klux Klan" on top of his long, hooded police raincoat. Chief of Police Anthony Campo, who had printed out the paper less than two minutes earlier, was standing in a nearby doorway waiting. Pool looked at his boss in disbelief. The officer spoke publicly about the incident for the first time Thursday. Reflecting on that moment during a news conference with attorneys from Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway, Pool said he was not sure what to say. "My exact words were, 'Are you serious?'" Pool said. "I just looked at him. What else can you say to the chief of police who has done something so heinous and so awful to the first Black officer ever (in the department)?" That June 25 incident was captured on a surveillance camera inside the police station and ultimately led to Campo's retirement four days later, after Mayor Dennis Bring confronted him and put him on administrative leave. A still image taken from another surveillance video, shared by Pool's attorneys Thursday, showed Campo wearing what appeared to be a paper folded into the shape of a Klan hood inside the police station. He told Pool to wear the paper hat on his next call, according to the law firm. Pool and his attorneys announced Thursday they had filed a discrimination charge and petitioned to force the city to release public records related to Campo's conduct that the lawyers believe are being wrongfully withheld from them. The Ku Klux Klan incident was particularly offensive and humiliating to Pool, he said, because of family history he'd learned years prior during a conversation with his great-grandmother at her 100th birthday party. Pool remembered asking his great-grandmother if the Klan had ever been involved with anybody in the family, and her replying that her son had been killed by the Klan. "That made matters worse with what Campo did to me," Pool said. "And this was not the chief's first time doing something racist and offensive to me or other employees. It was just the first time he got caught on video." Ashlie Case Sletvold, who is Pool's lead counsel, described multiple other racist and otherwise offensive actions Campo allegedly performed while chief. She said Campo created an image depicting Pool as the grim reaper, captioning it as the "raccoon reaper" and posting it on the department's bulletin board for weeks. He also sent Pool an image of a vehicle with large rims and heavily tinted windows, and told him it would be his police vehicle, Case Sletvold said. "The chief also told Officer Pool that it looked like his windows were tinted while he was sitting in a police car with the windows down," she said. Further, Case Sletvold alleged that Campo referred to Pool by the n-word and said he "did not want an n-word working in his department." Case Sletvold said Campo also targeted other employees with offensive images, including one depicting a Hispanic officer's face on a bottle of Tapatío hot sauce, wearing a sombrero. She said the discrimination charge was submitted to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and is the first step in initiating a lawsuit for "the illegal racial harassment against Officer Pool in his workplace." The mandamus petition that attorneys filed with the Supreme Court of Ohio seeks to compel the city to release several public records Pool requested. The list includes records of training provided to Campo and Pool regarding equal employment opportunity or diversity issues, any complaints Bring received about Campo, images created of Pool or any other city employee using FACEinHOLE (the website Campo allegedly used to make some of the offensive images), images or records Campo created referencing Black Lives Matter, communication between Campo and Bring regarding Pool, communication between Campo and any police sergeant regarding Pool and communication between Campo and Pool. "We know these to exist. We have collected some of them and we will hope to see the city of Sheffield Lake provide full copies of what they have," Case Sletvold said. "We understand that they secured the police chief's computer device as he was departing." A Lorain native, Pool was hired at the Sheffield Lake Police Department in September 2020 and has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience. He said he's also been a policeman in LaGrange, Sheffield and Grafton during his career. Pool said he has no plans of quitting the Sheffield Lake Police Department, and the atmosphere at work has been more upbeat since Campo left. "Despite everything that has happened to Officer Pool, Officer Pool is not a quitter. He is there to serve the community, and he is a hero and he did not deserve what happened to him," said Joseph C. Peiffer, managing partner with Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane & Conway. "He deserves an apology from that police chief, and he deserves these records to be released by the city of Sheffield Lake." Case Sletvold said senior city officials did nothing to stop Campo's behavior, instead allowing it to escalate into the KKK incident. Messages seeking comment were left with Bring and Sheffield Lake Law Director David Graves. Campo said "no comment" when reached by phone Thursday. Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.